I am amazed that McCain thinks he can gain traction with his attach line the Obama wants to "spread the wealth." Seeing his crowds boo when he brings up the idea of spreading the wealth is surreal. But when I step back for a moment I realize what he is doing, or at least what his supporters are hearing.
The are hearing that Obama wants to spread their wealth to the poor. Never mind that what Obama was talking about was paying for his tax cut to the middle class by increasing the taxes on those making over $250,000. Now I imagine the people at McCain rallies are folks making less than $250,000, so what Obama wants to do would benefit them. No matter.
Princeton Professor Larry Bartels, the author of "The Unequal Democracy" research has shown: The real incomes of middle-class families grew more than twice as fast under Democratic presidents as they did under Republican presidents. Even more remarkable, the real incomes of working-poor families (at the 20th percentile of the income distribution) grew six times as fast when Democrats held the White House.
If you want to talk about "spreading the wealth" what has really happened since 1980 is that 80% of net income gains have gone to the top 1% in the country. This we accept as the "will of the market."
I wonder if McCain would call Ronald Regan a socialist for instituting the earned income tax credit, which allows low income workers to receive a refund, not due to overpayment of taxes, but as a redistribution mechanism. Another Republican wealth redistribution program is Section 8, which provides rental housing subsidies to low income families. This was a Nixon program, Nixon was many things but a socialist he is not.
The truly surreal thing about the accusation of socialism is that the current Republican Administration is partially nationalizing banks. Shouldn't McCain be branded Bush as a socialist?
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